Scubaddict

A couple of nights ago, our quiet evening of lounging on our motor home futon/couch in front of our 15 inch TV watching Monday night football was interrupted by high winds whipping through our tall fir trees. We tried to ignore the sounds of fir cones and small branches striking the metal roof on our house and shop but soon we were unnerved by loud cracking sounds, as if a whole tree was breaking in two.   We rushed out of the coach to see 10-12 ft long branches scattered around the driveway but luckily no tree trunks!   We also decided this was a good time to put the 10×10 ft pop up canopy away before it decided to take flight. 

That night I started thinking about what might happen if one of our big trees decided it was done fighting the wind.  Would we be lucky enough to have it drop on part of the property that we still need to work on or would it rip a hole in our brand new house?  If you are a simple homeowner in our city, it is VERY difficult to remove hazardous trees from your own private property.  There are permits to buy and arborists to talk to.  And if you’re lucky enough to receive approval to remove a tree there is also the requirement that you will have to replace that tree with a similar species in a quantity greater than what you just removed.  Here’s an example:

3 years ago we wanted to remove 1 large Cedar Tree (26 inches in diameter) that would be just 12 feet away from Ben’s new shop roof.   We filled out the permit forms, talked extensively with the city arborist and at the end of the day we decided to keep the tree.  The main reason for our decision?  The city wanted us to plant 27 NEW trees on our property of like species to replace the 1 we wanted to remove.  It was the MOST absurd thing we had ever heard!   If I were to count up all of the mature trees that are currently on our property, I think I might have a total of 21 – 23 trees.  The only way we could possibly fit 27 more trees on our property would be if we planted seedlings and cut them down within 5 years, begging the question “Why bother?”.  

And the craziest things about our city?  If you are a developer and want to put in a new Walmart or ticky tacky housing development, you can go ahead and flatten 10 or more acres of land with apparrently no replanting plan for the 100’s of mature trees that are removed. 

I guess we’ll just get to build Ben a bigger, better shop someday if that big cedar decides it’s time to stop fighting the wind….

Now that all 13 of our interior doors have a protective finish on them I thought I would share a few tips of the things I learned during my journey toward completing this part of our home build. Some of these things are actually listed on the can instructions, but I believe they need more emphasis, and my other tips, well….

1) While applying polyurethane, NEVER take a break to pet the cat no matter how affectionate they appear to be. This is just a ploy by your cat to permanently attach some of their DNA to your project, because no matter how careful you are, cat hair will soon be landing on any wet surfaces like metal shards to a magnet.

2) ALWAYS mix the product before you start applying it. I KNOW they mention this on the can but for some reason I thought a brand new can would not need to be mixed and I have one door in our house with a glossy finish on one side while the rest are all satin finish. Eventually this glossy door is going to drive me nuts and I’ll end up refinishing it but for now we need to keep pushing forward…

3) If 2-3 coats are recommended go for 3 coats. You won’t be disappointed. I also have one door that mistakenly ended up with 4 coats of poly, and it looks amazing! If I only had more time…

4) ALWAYS protect your hands and your lungs. Even if you just need to sand down one little spot, put those gloves and mask back on! All it takes is a few minutes of inhaling dust and you’re more susceptible to colds & allergies. I also made the mistake of not always wearing gloves when applying the poly or cleaning my brush and now I’m having to nurse a rash on my right hand. Just take the time and protect yourself from these chemicals!

5) Fast Drying Polyurethane is not! The can says “allow 4-6 hours drying time between coats…” but even with a dehumidifier running, I would need to wait at least 24 hours before sanding down the first coat. I don’t know if this is because I live in Seattle or if this is just the nature of the beast. If the poly appears gummy when you sand it, walk away and check back in 6 more hours. You’ll just make a bigger mess of things if the poly isn’t completely dry.

6) Spend the money, buy a good quality brush and then take care of it. I suspend my brush in mineral spirits after each coat of poly by hanging the brush from the hole at the end of the handle. The used poly floats down to the bottom of the container overnight. Then, all I need to do is wipe the excess mineral spirits off with a Shop Towel and I’m ready for the next coat. Works like a charm!

7) Resist the temptation of applying a more than a SUPER THIN coat of polyurethane. I know that for some of you out there, this is probably a no-brain-er. But for me, a thicker coat seemed to look so luxurious and glossy, until it started to puddle and/or drip. Plus a thicker, drippy coat means more scrapping and sanding in between coats, aka more work. I finally figured out at door #8 or #9 that the beauty of this product comes out in multiple coats and not thick coats. Again, this is one of those things that you can read on the instructions on the back of the can but I still had that Ah HA moment one evening when I realized “Oh… You meant THAT thin of a coat”…

So now that I have all of this experience, I look at some of the first doors I finished and see spots I want to sand down and apply one more perfect, thin coat. But this will need to wait until someday, down the road, when I don’t have full page of To Do’s that all need to be completed within the next 30 days.

Over the last few weeks, when I wake up early and enter our new house to complete a few tasks before heading to the office, I am in awe of what we’ve accomplished and how far we have come. I’m also starting to realize that someday, very soon, we will be finished to the point of being able to move in and spend time enjoying our house without having a task to do! I know Ben is frustrated that we will need to circle back and redo all of the things that we are temporarily putting in place to pass our final inspection but maybe that’s exactly what we need for each other.

A good friend of mine made a joke this week that Ben and I might not get along so well if we didn’t have a project to work on together.  This comment made me think a bit… We spent our first 3 years together building Ben’s wood shop, we were married in July 2001 and 30 days later we broke ground on our 5 year remodel. We only had one year in between finishing our Tacoma house and starting on our Bonney Lake project. Do you see the trend here? I don’t want our marriage to be like that weird Winchester House in San Jose where the owners felt like they had to keep adding onto the house or they would perish!  

There are SO many things that I am looking forward to doing once we finish building our house.   Piano & Guitar lessons are at the top of the list and starting an organic vegetable garden is something we’ve both talked about for years.  My biggest hope for 2011 is that the only thing we will build together is our friendship… and maybe a green house for our new garden :0)

Just me... working on interior doors

Ben enjoying some "Grandpa Time"

… like being able to take a shower without worrying about over-filling up a gray water tank! Also worth mentioning is an extra refrigerator in the garage to keep more than 3 days of food on hand and a washer/dryer that I can use any time of the day or night. I’ve learn so many things about myself over the last 3 years and appreciating the little gifts that life brings each day is the one thing I hope to keep.

We are slowly putting all of the pieces together inside the house. I worked on interior doors all weekend and I have 4 doors ready to be hung with 9 more to go. If I keep on schedule, I should have all of the door done by next weekend.

One really big project we have is hanging the wood ceiling in the living room. I’m putting together a work party for next Saturday and if we are organized we should be able to finish in a few hours. But then again, things usually take longer than I think they should… I’m just looking forward to disassembling the scaffold and moving on to installing the hardwood flooring. I CAN’T WAIT!! :0)

I’ve been spending a lot of time on Craigslist lately looking for building materials that we need. So far, I’ve done pretty well with finding a gas range, dishwasher, kitchen sink, and 3 bath vanities all for FREE! I also found 5″ wide brazilian cherry flooring for $3.50 a sq ft as well as carpeting for as low as $1.00 sq ft. The only materials I still need to secure are kitchen cabinets. So every morning, I’m start my day by looking for new postings for free or really cheap cabinets that are still in servicable condition. It seems a little strange to be finishing our brand new house with used items but this is the best solution I can come up with to pass our final inspection and start living in our house.

I recently set an ambitious goal to have our home finished before the upcoming November elections. This will give us the best chance at taking advantage of the all time low interest rates. With this goal in mind, as of today we have 25 more days of hard work ahead of us. Just 25 days… After 2 years, 10 months and 26 days, this seems like a blink of an eye to me.

This would be the number of days we’ve been living in our motor home while we build our new house. I probably shouldn’t be counting the days but every now and then curiosity gets the best of me and I can’t help but wonder how long it has been.

Our latest progress has been shifting Ben’s time over to finishing the shop so that we can move all of his woodworking tools home. It looks like insulation will go in the walls this week and we’ll start hanging drywall next week in the shop.

I’ve been spending my time sanding the post and beams in the house. The wood was exposed to sun and rain for about two months before the roof was installed leaving water marks and dirt behind. The douglas fir beams really glow after a good sanding. I’m also applying polyurethane to the clean wood to preserve the wood.

We have our slate tile for the entryway & half bath and it’s ready to be installed. I originally thought I would be doing the tile work but I’ve already got too much on my plate. I’m hoping I can get my brother-in-law Cal to start laying tile for me this week.  Also, our toilets are ready to be installed as soon as the floors are installed in the bathrooms.  Our interior doors arrived last week as well which will be my next big project ~ sanding and putting finish on the doors.  What I can’t seem to find is enough time to do all the things I need to do!   

 

Has it really been almost two months since my last post?  Bad, bad blogger…. :(  For those of you following our home building adventure, please don’t think this is due to a lack of activity ~ We have been very busy!  In fact, I was told last night that our drywall crew will be doing the final sanding today inside the house and the walls will be ready for us to prime this weekend!  The inside of the house looks TOTALLY different now that the drywall is up.  Now more cutting corners by walking through walls to get into rooms!

Drywall has always seemed like the “home stretch” part of our previous remodeling projects so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we are in the final stages of buttoning things up.  We’ve been living in our motor home so long that I have to remind myself that there is this fabulous new house just steps away that we be able to live in some day very soon.  How cool will it be to wake up to the sounds of the lake right outside our bedroom window?  It seems like a crazy dream to us at the moment.  Our patience is wearing thin and the motor home seems to be extra small lately.  Each day this week I’ve been waking up early to stain pine ceiling boards before heading to the office and stain another set when I get home each evening.  I keep telling myself to just keep my head down and make some kind of progress everyday and eventually that “second wind” will kick in for both of us.  Once we have our Certificate of Occupancy we might just take 6 months off to recover from this home building grind and spend our days playing hide and go seek in our big house :) 

I can remember feeling this same “burnout” when I was just 600 ft away from the summit on Mt Rainier.  It would have been SO easy to just stop climbing and curl up to take a nap thinking that it might not be worth the effort to make that last final push to the top.   But reaching the summit was worth every labored breath and every step that it took in that last and final hour.  I had to reach deep into my soul to find the strength I needed to keep going.  And every clear sky day on my way home I am reminded of just how strong I really am when I see my mountain smiling back at me through the daffodil fields in Sumner.

Tools of the Trade

 

The Entryway Wall

The Stairwell heading down into the basement

Dining Room

Master Bedroom

Jacob hard at work on the kitchen ceiling

 

My Inspiration!

We poured some more concrete last week! Our driveway approach is done and all of our neighbors think we’re in the final stages of our house build… NOT! From the outside we do look pretty close, but take one step inside and you’ll see that we still haven’t hung any sheetrock yet in the house. I’m determined to make March our Sheet Rock Month!  We also finished installing the wood flooring in the wood shop loft so we are moving all of our boxes that have been in our storage unit into this space.  This will save us a bunch of money each month as well as help us find all of the things we’ve been missing for the last 2 years.  Our Tacoma house sold so quickly that we didn’t have time to be as organized as we should have been.  Things were just thrown in boxes and put into storage.  So it’s like Christmas for us!  I DO already own a really kick-butt food processor ~ WOO HOO!! We’ve got to be out of our storage unit by Sunday so we don’t have much time to reminisce 🙂

Finished Wood Shop Loft

Concrete Driveway Approach

We’ve accomplished a lot over the last month, such as finishing the sheet rock in the attached garage and the loft above the shop and we finally have GARAGE DOORS!  Woo Hoo!

Our garage doors are painted and installed

I spent 2 weeks mudding and taping and mudding and sanding and mudding…. the shop loft in the early hours of the morning before heading to the office.  I’m glad to say that I’m getting better at it and learning a few tricks along the way.  It should make my job easier when we are ready to sheet rock Ben’s wood shop.

Mary taking a break from sanding the shop loft at 5:30 am ish

We were also the recipient of some reclaimed hardwood flooring from our most awesome friend Joey Decker ♥.  Ben and I don’t mind a little hard work if the materials are FREE!  We had to clip off the old nails and get them up into the loft and organized by length before we could start nailing them into their new home.  We need to make every inch count so that we have enough to cover the whole 504 sq ft of the loft.

Reclaimed mahogany hardwood flooring

Installing the reclaimed mahogany in the shop loft

The hardwood flooring is all organized by size

We had several offers to get out of town for a romantic weekend but Ben and I want to stay close to home and pour some more love into our new home ♥♥♥  I’ve got a lot of prep work to do so that we can move forward on the house and wood shop sheet rock.   It should be a good productive weekend for us!

Ben and David started laying the deck boards last week and I finally had a chance to see the deck in the daylight on Saturday morning.  I know that Trex and other manufactured woods are low maintenance but I sure do LOVE the look of real wood!  We prestained the deckboards using the same stain that is on the house siding.  Hopefully we won’t have to restain the deck every year.

Dining Room Deck

We also did a lot of painting this weekend.  The attached garage is now primed and painted!  One space done… many more to do.